Homegrown Produce for Consumers who Desire the Joys of a Garden.

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Sharing Experiences

Answering top of mind consumer questions about the food to farm journey at the Minnesota State Fair.

Consumers at the Minnesota State Fair were interested in what we grew, why we grow it, and what our favorite farm memories were.

It has been another week filled with unique opportunities. First, we worked at the Farm Bureau building at the Minnesota State Fair. While some may shy away from the experience, we encourage you to give the Great Minnesota Get Together a try. Whether you are a consumer seeking to visit with farmers and see some animals, or you are a Farm Bureau member and are available to volunteer to connect with consumers – give it a try.

The boys enjoyed sharing their farm knowledge with fairgoers and answering questions that the consumers had about how their food is grown. Good conversations of answering questions of the food to farm journey with questions coming from honest places of just wanting to better understand how food is grown and dispelling the confusion around food labels.

Sharing experiences together and learning from them help us all to grow.

In other news, the weather has opened up its skies and dumped nearly 5 inches at our place over the last few days. Since we knew there wasn’t going to be a break in the rain yesterday, we harvested through it last night. I didn’t capture any photos because we were to wet and would have ruined the camera.

We were thankful there was no lightning so this was possible. Nothing binds a family together like working through adverse conditions.

Each growing season is unique, please keep farmers across our nation facing these torrential rains and weather conditions in your prayers as they work hard to bring in crops to feed, fuel and clothe us.

Boxes of Produce

This list is prepared before we harvest your share. Some guesswork is involved! We do our best to predict which crops will be ready to harvest, but sometimes crops are on the list that are not in the share, and sometimes crops will be in the share even though they’re not on the list. Remember food safety in your kitchen when preparing, always wash your hands before working with your produce and always wash your produce before eating.

Black Seeded Simpson/Red Oak Leaf Lettuce/Spinach/Kale– These crops taste good on a sandwich or salad. New crops will be ready next week.

Basil– If you are in need of some fresh basil or some to dry or freeze, we have some.

Purple and Green Beans – Such a delicious vegetable cooked, eaten raw or in salads.

I miss labeled these as Banana Peppers. They are actually Sweet Savour Hybrid Peppers. Please provide feedback on the variety of peppers this year.

Sweet Savour Hybrid Peppers– They may be small, but they pack quite the taste. The beautiful and tasty tricolor fruit looks like hot peppers but eats like sweet peppers.

Mama Mia Giallo Hybrid – Tapered 7–9″ fruits are smooth-skinned and uniform in shape. Prized as one of the earliest sweet peppers of its size—fruit ripens just 80 days after transplanting. Excellent fresh, roasted, or grilled.

Pepper, Hot, Serrano Tampiqueno– Heat-lovers, here’s another Mexican favorite used in a variety of dishes, from salsas to soups. Heat scale is about 3,00-0 Scovilles.

Detroit Dark Red Beets Cooked beets: -Cut the top and the bottom off -Place in boiling water -Boil until you can stick a fork through it -Take out of boiling water -Using a paper towel, gently rub the skin off -Slice and enjoy with a dab of butter.

Carrots – Esperanza carrots – enjoy these summer delights. This new crop is out of the garden versus the raised bed.

Kohlrabi– So glad that the insects didn’t win this time on this crop. Peel and cut like an apple eat raw, in salads or dip the slices in peanut butter. Enjoy!

Onions –If you are feeling overloaded on onions, cut them up and spread them out and freeze on a cookie sheet or pan. Once frozen place in a container or a Ziploc bag for use throughout the year. I do this and am just coming to my end of frozen onions. This helps speed up my meal preparation. See how onions are grown in Washington.

Potatoes – Yukon and Masquerade potatoes are in your boxes this week.

Yukon Gold Potatoes -The smooth, thin, and gold to light brown skin is relatively eye free creating a uniform texture and shape. The skin is also speckled with many small, brown spots. The flesh is yellow to gold, firm, moist, and waxy. When cooked, Yukon Gold potatoes take on a creamy and tender consistency with a rich, buttery, and earthy flavor. Yukon Gold potatoes are best suited for cooked applications such as roasting, grilling, frying, mashing, sautéing, and boiling.

Potatoes grow under the ground and are a tuber. Sometimes when you pull up the dead plant the potatoes come out attached to the plant like you see here. These are Masquerade Potatoes.

Masquerade Potatoes – The bicolored, thin skin has a golden-yellow base and is covered in dominant spots of purple and violet. The flesh is pale yellow to light gold and is firm, dense, and moist. When cooked, Masquerade potatoes offer a creamy and buttery flavor. Masquerade potatoes are best suited for cooked applications such as roasting, baking, boiling, mashing, steaming, frying, or sautéing.

Golden Egg Hybrid Summer Squash– This crop is slowly coming on with either Golden Egg Hybrid great to wash and slice to eat on a veggie tray, use on a kabob or try it sautéed in a little olive oil, salt and pepper.

Peter Pan Squash– No need to peel, simply wash and cut up this squash and use like the others. Check out these recipes.

Zucchini – This crop has been a bit slow due to our insect challenges this year. But it is coming on. So like the cauliflower and kohlrabi we are alternating it around the shareholders. Enjoy – here are some recipes from Country Living.

Tomatoes – Let us know if you would like extra to freeze, make into salsa, or can. Included this week are some of the 4th of July, Super Sweet 100 Hybrid, SunGold Cherry tomatoes and a few more varieties sprinkled in. Learn more about tomatoes on America’s Heartland. Learn how to freeze your tomatoes here.

Butternut Squash

Butternut Squash- This is our family favorite of squashes. It is hourglass in shape. Here are a few recipes for Butternut Squash from Martha Stewart.

Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti Squash – This oblong light yellow squash is a tasty substitute for spaghetti. Check out this link on how to cook spaghetti squash from Real Simple.

Uchiki Kuri Winter Squash – This is a popular squash that has attractive orange-red skin. Yellow and creamy flesh is very sweet and nutty. It is a hubbard type squash and sometimes also referred to as a baby red hubbard type since its appearance is like that of a petite hubbard. The word “kuri” translates to mean chestnut in Japanese, the main flavor profile found in the Red Kuri squash. It is a squash is a good source of vitamin A and vitamin C as well as potassium and iron. Hard-skinned Red Kuri squash can be difficult to peel and are most easily cooked in their skin. Split squash in half, scoop out seeds, and roast cut-side down until tender. Red Kuri can also be cut into wedges or cubes and roasted. The skin of Red Kuri once cooked is tender enough to consume so need not be removed prior to eating.

Fresh cut arrangement– Hosta Leaves, Hydrangeas, zinnias and more

Fresh cut arrangements to brighten your day.

Recipe of the Week

I have doubled the recipe in this picture: Add: 1 stick of butter 3/4 cup brown sugar Using a mixer, blend together until smooth. Serve.

Blend until smooth. Freeze extra in cupcake tins. Once frozen pop out of tin and place in Ziploc bag perfect for a single portion later on. Store in freezer.

Butternut Squash

My family loves this recipe, and the boys eat it like crazy. I also use the prepared squash in place of pumpkin in many recipes.

*Cut squash in 1/2 add enough water to cover pan (about 1/2 inch up on the side of the pan). Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 1 hour.

*Take out of oven. Scoop out seeds. The seeds can be kept and roasted.

*Using a large knife cut off skin and place in another bowl.

Add:

1 stick of butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

Using a mixer, blend together until smooth. Serve.

Blend until smooth. To save the extra, place in a cupcake tin and freeze. Place frozen portions in storage containers to be stored in your freezer. Enjoy!